


Racing Fate

by Magi_Silverwolf



Series: To Make a Difference [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Final Battle, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Psychological Manipulation, Lunar Heroes, Lunar Lightning, Time Travel, teaser
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 10:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11484594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magi_Silverwolf/pseuds/Magi_Silverwolf
Summary: Luna had to reach him. He waseverything.





	Racing Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note(s): This piece was written for the Houses Competition on the FFN Forums. 
> 
> The Houses Competition Information:  
> House: Hufflepuff  
> Category: Drabble  
> Prompts: Luna Lovegood; Racing/the race  
> Word Count: 624

-= LP =-

Through Feline Eyes

Teaser: Racing Fate

-= LP =-

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” ― Pablo Neruda

-= LP =-

 

Luna ran like she had never ran before, all trace of her carefully cultivated calm burned away by the flames of fear licking at her soul. If she had breath to spare, she would be cursing Hogwarts’ deep-seated wards against apparation on the grounds. If they hadn’t been etched into the very foundations of the ancient castle, they would have fallen when the bulk of the rest did and she wouldn’t be forced to run like her life depended upon it. What kept her going even as her side began to burn was that it wasn’t _her_ life that depended upon her reaching her destination.

 

It was _Harry’s_.

 

Even after all their effort, the old _fool_ had managed to do it _again_. In the name of that trice-cursed prophecy that he put so much stock into, Albus Dumbledore had convinced Harry to turn himself over to Voldemort. _Willingly_. Neville and she had worked so hard to overwrite every word of every derision that the Dursleys had etched into Harry’s personality, to undo as many of Dumbledore’s manipulations that they could trace, and yet _clearly_ they had missed something. Harry had to know that he was far more than a shield or weapon—he should know better than to attempt to confront that megalomaniac by himself.

 

The tears were just from the wind whipping her face as she raced through the Forest. The chest pain was just from strained lungs. The weakness in her knees was just from the effort of running on uneven ground.

 

None of it was fear of losing him _again_.

 

Because that wouldn’t happen.

 

Not again.

 

 _Never again_.

 

She had factored their probability of favorable outcomes in those dark months following Harry’s guilt-ridden comment about changing the past. Trusting her initial calculation would have been beyond foolish, as drunk as she had been. She had never told her boys but it had been those calculations which had taken so long, not the creation of the ritual. She had wanted to be sure, had needed to be sure. It would have been worthless to sacrifice so much only to end up making things _worse_. Ever since returning and almost killing Harry, those numbers had become just as much an obsession as creating the ritual had been in that _before_.

 

Each pounding footstep bore a prayer for intercession. Harry had died for Britannia once already. There was no reason for him to do it again. She and Neville had already guaranteed that Harry was free from that pathetic shard. Her heart pounded at the reminder of how defenseless he would be against the Dark Lord’s Killing Curse, unprotected by the very thing that had _impossibly_ saved him last time.

 

She couldn’t lose him.

 

Not again.

 

 _Never again_.

 

The break in the tree line was sudden, leaving her stumbling into the back of a masked Death Eater. Unwilling to break inertia any more than she had already, Luna shoved her way past the ring of minions. She had to reach him—she couldn’t be too late to make him understand. Time could be rewritten, but only so many times and the price was always steep. She had to save him; there would not be another chance. This wasn’t where this was supposed to end.

 

She saw the curse in the same moment that Harry saw her. It hit in the same moment she threw herself forward, knowing that there was no way she could cover those last feet in time. He fell backwards like a marionette whose strings had been cut and she dove to catch him. Her heart beat a song of war even as her soul choked on a dirge.

 

She couldn’t breathe evenly but it didn’t matter.

 

It never would again.


End file.
